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I’ll take this as a ‘No, I want to keep talking to you, forget the antagonism’. That’s alright with me.
What is the difference between this take and similar claims about truth, science and objectivity? You say yourself that truth is a matter of aesthetics and you question objective reality. (Sometimes. At other times ‘it’s because of the single shared objective reality that we can discuss our distinct interests in common terms’).
Groups and individuals may adopt differing behavioral guidelines, but a child can see they do not work equally well, like science and superstition. It takes a lot of smarts to blur the lines between sense and nonsense, but you can do it I guess.
Pomo on the whole is a meaningless wordgame. The avg 100 IQ human being understands that murder is wrong, what truth is, that objective reality exists, etc. And they mean the same thing to him as they mean to me. If some wacko honestly denies them, their epistemology is worthless and morally, they should be treated as defectors. Now understandably you don’t want to bite the bullets all the way yourself, so with great effort you’ve cobbled together a weaker version of conventional beliefs. The main difference being, you’ll ‘well-actually’ any Joe that speaks candidly of these matters, before frantically backpedaling when he identifies you as a wacko – 'Practically we’re the same, I just mean it’s not true “in some substantial objective sense”’”.
Can I treat them as if they’re wearing a defector badge? If so, you’ll understand why I’m uncomfortable relying on your “cultural indoctrination and various feelings resembling a conscience, possibly ingrained, who knows” to not murder others. As you allude to, you have no self-interested reason to lie about your precarious commitment to morality, a true machiavellian would loudly proclaim their intention to cooperate, so I have to believe you.
Do you honestly believe the russian or nazi ruling class is anything like me? I just look at might and incorporate it into my worldview alongside everything else, to a Carl Schmitt there is nothing but might, for a postmodernist all information is corrupted by might.
The guy who spends tokens to punish a cooperator out of some personal beef isn't trying to keep predators starving. Are predators starving in russia?
Workers who beat up scabs would have, in another era, destroyed the very machines that ensure they now live in abundance. This sort of defection relies on a myopic view of one’s self-interest. Where are those ‘rationally defecting’ coal miners now? Who can argue with the rotten fruits of societies that practice antisocial punishment?
Is it any more comfortable to rely on someone who claims he doesn't murder because it's objectively wrong? I don't know objective morality, I don't know if he knows objective morality, I don't know if he believes objective morality. What I know is that people whose momma raised them well generally don't stray from that too much.
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